Guitar Tablature: "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers"

Playing "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers" on guitar gives you a chance to practice a variety of scale patterns and sequences. When you look at the beginning of the music for Oh, Dem Golden Slippers, notice the elements that give you clues to the song’s character: tempo marking, time signature, key signature, and dynamics.

Oh, Dem Golden Slippers has two parts, and you may recognize the first part as the melody to the children’s song Polly Wolly Doodle All the Day. This children’s song actually derives its melody from the early American folk song about valuable footwear.

Oh, Dem Golden Slippers is played in A major, starting with a major scale pattern 2nd position. This song uses two scale patterns, one for each section. Use major scale pattern #2 for the first section, and remember that it has one out-of-position note occurring on the 4th string. Use pattern #1 (and enjoy the fact that it contains no out-of-position notes) for the second section, which begins after the second ending. Also, note that because the first section of is played down the neck (in the lower frets), the frets are wider, making stretches a little more difficult.

A difficult stretch occurs in bar 5, beat 4, where you have to reach out of position to play the 4th string, 6th fret (G#). Make sure you can get back into position for the next note — the 3rd string, 2nd fret (A) — which is the last note of the bar.

At the second ending of the first section, the music has a quarter rest at the end of the bar. You can use this rest as a way of silently switching positions for the next section, which is in 4th position.